LDSW #6 Christmas Tree Hunt

LDSW #6 - Christmas tree in wilderness

     It was mid afternoon on a late December day. The wind was cold enough to bite through our winter coats, but the sun was shining. Two of our sons came with us to help find the most perfect Christmas tree. We never bought one off a lot, we wanted to find our own. We went up into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to find our tree.


     We stopped several places as we climbed up a gravel logging road but we wanted a noble fir, and they grow higher up on the mountains than the Douglas firs. There was no snow but the puddles on the road had frozen solid. It was twilight when we found a tree we wanted. We were at the top of Silver Star mountain. We could look down from the ridge to the South and see the Columbia River winding way down below. To the North was and equally steep dropoff. Our gravel road was on top of the ridge. We cut the tree and hurried back into our warm car. Darkness was coming on quickly. We came up over a little rise and the road stopped. Then we turned around, went back a little ways to a fork in the road. We prayed to know which way to go. We felt prompted to go down the road that looked most traveled, which wasn’t much. We had barely gone a few feet in the dark when we came to a fence and couldn’t go any further. So we turned around, went back to the fork and went down the other road. It was rough and rocky, but it did go down the mountain. An hour later we were on a good highway headed back home.


     We wondered why the Lord would direct us to take the wrong road first? Our conclusion was about the same as a similar story told by Elder Boyd K. Packer in the Fall 2011 General Conference. The Lord wanted us to know which way was the wrong way first. If we had taken the other road first, we might have turned around and gone back to the wrong road and become more lost in the darkness on that cold, windy ridge.

Seeing The Forgotten Carols

A friend I work with on my volunteer job gave us a pair of tickets to see the final performance of the 20th Anniversary season for The Forgotten Carols live and onstage at Arizona State University.  Though I have owned the book and CD for several years, I never dreamed I would ever see it in person because they typically tour in the mountain west, where I don't live--but this Christmas season we are in Arizona!

After the formal bows and standing ovation, Michael McLean, the author, star, director etc. put on an extra half-hour performance. Sitting at the grand piano, he combined nostalgia about the Carols over the years, played more music, had a guest singer sing and then reverently asked the audience to join in singing Silent Night, and to not clap afterwards. Everyone exited the theater quietly and reverently. It was a wonderful, spirtually uplifting atmosphere. And the Christmas lights in downtown Tempe added to the specialness of the occasion as we drove back home.  This is the best Christmas present I could have ever been given!